CBS Ran ‘Propaganda’ to Cover for Al Franken After First Sexual Harassment Claim

CBS News had a report over the weekend about Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) that exposed not real news but their own bias.

The outlet published quotes from several women who had worked with Franken, a Democratic senator who has been accused of sexual harassment by commentator Leeann Tweeden. The women in the “report” from CBS News only had glowing things to say about their former boss.

“CBS, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Doc said on today’s show while standing in for Glenn. “That’s not news. That’s propaganda. How is something that didn’t happen news?”

Tweeden said that during a USO tour in 2006, Franken forcibly kissed her without permission and left a photograph of him groping her chest. She released the picture as proof along with a post about the incident.

Today, a new accuser came forward to say that Franken groped her during a photo op at the 2010 Minnesota State Fair. Lindsay Menz’s account is the first accusation dated during Franken’s time in office.

DOC: Doc Thompson in for Glenn Beck. We're discussing the witch hunt that is accusations all over the place of inappropriate behavior. All kinds of different people.

And I say witch hunt because you can clearly see that people are trying to gin up things from the past, in order to punish people.

Are some of these legit? Absolutely. Should those people be punished if proven guilty? Absolutely. I have no problem against that. Of course, they should.

But you recognize most of this is being done for a political nature, or for agenda. Even if it's not a politician. It's the, huh. We've heard virtually nothing about Kevin Spacey. But a whole lot about Roy Moore, haven't we?

Al Franken over the weekend, they ran a story on CBS that basically said -- and I tweeted about it. I was stunned. CBS, you should be ashamed of yourself. They ran a story that basically said, here's a bunch of women who worked in Al Franken's office who said, he was always a perfect gentleman and one hell of a boss. That's not news. That's propaganda.

How is something that didn't happen news? Okay. So your argument is, well, this disputes what this woman claimed. Well, remember, there's photographic evidence of one of her allegations. So you don't have to prove it or disprove it, as CBS is trying to do. CBS was trying to take the heat on of Al Franken. They were -- they were helping him.

They were not the fourth estate. They were not the media holding people accountable and reporting facts as journalists. CBS, we're propagandists, helping or attempting to help Al Franken. Had they dug up a bunch of women from Roy Moore's past saying, he was always a perfect gentleman. I was 13, and he didn't sleep with me. No. They didn't do that. Did they dig up a bunch of women during the campaign saying, Donald Trump never grabbed me by the hoo-ha? No. It was, here's a bunch of women that said -- that never happened with Al Franken. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Let's go to the phone lines. 888-727-BECK. 888-727-BECK.

Let's go to line number 55 in Massachusetts. It's Steve. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program, Steve. How are you?

CALLER: Hey, Glenn. How are you doing?

DOC: Doing well.

CALLER: My biggest pet peeve with this whole sexual harassment scandal is why hasn't Bill Clinton at least been condemned and ostracized by the Democrat Party? He should have been in jail for what he did while he was governor of Arkansas, never mind have a political career. To me, the whole Democrat Harvey fighting against sexual harassment is the biggest fraud, because Bill Clinton is still walking around free and loose. And until they clean that up, I think my vote is going to be a protest vote, against Bill Clinton, for his sexual harassment.

DOC: You know what, Steve, and I -- you're absolutely right. The hypocrisy is incredible. Now, there is hypocrisy from the right too. There's a lot of people who won't hold people accountable, and that's fine. But you're absolutely right when it comes to Bill Clinton.

Did you see what Chelsea Handler did last week with regard to that story, where she was talking about Juanita Broaddrick, or tweeted at her.

So Chelsea Handler -- and, by the way, Steve, thank you for the call. Chelsea Handler, who suffers from Trump derangement syndrome -- full disclosure, I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I didn't support him, because I vote on track record. I certainly didn't vote for Hillary, but I vote on track record as a conservative Libertarian. I think Trump has done a pretty good job with some things. I've criticized him on others.

Having said that -- got to do that disclaimer in today's world, unfortunately.

Chelsea Handler tweets out about, all women are to be believed, and a bunch of other propaganda as part of her Trump derangement symptom. And, of course, blasted Trump.

She put something like, imagine when speaking of Roy Moore -- imagine you're a young girl and an older man abuses you sexually. It was pretty close to that. I'm paraphrasing. But it's pretty close.

And then you have to suffer through it the rest of your life, and then he gets elected to the Senate. And you have to witness that. And what does that show to other girls?

And Juanita Broaddrick, who has accused Bill Clinton of raping her, when he was governor, tweeted out, I don't have to imagine. Because it happened to me.

Said, that happened -- a governor did that to me, and then went on to be president. So on and so forth. And a bunch of people said, hey, what about that Chelsea, come on. And she was silent for a few days. And was forced to respond.

And she respond, Juanita, I didn't know about that. I'm just finding out about this. What? Bill Clinton. Allegations! Women! Rape, inappropriate, what? When did this happen -- what?

(laughter)

Really, Chelsea? Did you start reading the newspapers a week and a half ago? You really don't remember any of that stuff? You're lying. It's crap. How dare you.

Let's go back to the phone lines. Line 22 now. Rick in Missouri. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. How are you?

CALLER: Thank you, Doc. Pleasure to be on. What gets me besides everything that has already been stated as basically the facts of it is, we got to learn from our history. And here's one simple little history lesson that is from the recent past.

Mitt Romney didn't pay his taxes for ten years. Well, that's what I heard.

DOC: Yes.

CALLER: Two years later, Harry, you lied, on nationwide TV. Harry, you lied. And he smirks and says, well, he didn't win, did he? Ha, ha, ha.

I'm feeling exactly the same thing in Alabama, on a state-level, which will lead to a federal level. That's exactly what I'm feeling.

DOC: And, Rick, mind you, while he was saying that, while Harry Reid having no conscience was saying that, there were actually people in the current administration when he said that, that didn't pay their taxes. Do you remember?

Tim Geithner and Kathleen Sebelius, remember? They did not pay their taxes and only paid them once they were called out and it was discovered. Yet, he called out Mitt Romney.

DOC: Yes, they still haven't. Yeah, every year, the IG reports come out and they don't pay their taxes. I mean, look at -- we found out -- well, Rick, we just found out that Lois Lerner, they started settling some of those cases with the Tea Party and patriot groups when Lois Lerner conspired with other people, and I believe the Obama administration and other people therein, to use the power of the IRS to punish people for their different political opinions.

CALLER: Oh, yeah.

DOC: And they've started to admit that now. They've actually admitted that, wrongdoing, and said they won't let that happen again now.

Meanwhile, Lois Lerner still sits, collecting a government pension, that, by the way, they waited to fire her or retire her a couple of months, so she would reach another category and make more money.

CALLER: Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing?

DOC: And that's the hypocrisy, Rick. I don't care if it's Democrat or Republican. I'm tired of the DC game where it's them against us.

CALLER: Well, to me, Doc, to be quite honest with you, with regard to how the party goes, because I'm old enough to remember, Blue Dog Democrats. I'm old enough to remember real Republicans. The Republican Party today was the Democratic Party of 30 years ago. The Democratic Party today is the Socialist Party of today.

DOC: Wow.

CALLER: That's the way I look at it.

DOC: That's a great way to look at it, buddy. Thanks so much for the call. Appreciate it. Back to the phone lines. Let's go to New York now.

David from line 111. How are you, sir?

CALLER: Good. How are you?

DOC: Good. Well, sir.

CALLER: What I wanted to say was, you know, Judge Roy Moore is being slandered all over the news. You know, he might be guilty, he might not be. The lady may be telling the truth. But there's only -- there's no really way of finding out the truth, unless you ask him to take a polygraph test. Because he's being destroyed in the court of public opinion. So why not get some world-renowned polygraphist to give these guys tests, find out who is telling the truth?

DOC: Well, and I appreciate where you're heading with this. And I like the idea. If I were Roy Moore, I would take one. The problem is, polygraph tests aren't always accurate, as you know. But -- and, by the way, thank you so much for the call. But the bigger problem is you're asking Roy Moore to prove his innocence. That's not now how this is supposed to work.

Now, I know there are people like Mitt Romney even, who said, innocent until proven guilty is for a court of law, not public opinion. And all of this crap. And the bottom line is Mitt Romney doesn't like Roy Moore because Mitt Romney is the progressive Republican. We know that.

The reason he put that out there is because of other things. Other reasons he doesn't want Roy Moore to have that gig.

But you're still asking him to prove himself innocent. It's not supposed to work that way. Even though that's an official standard when it comes to our legal system, we're all supposed to have that attitude ourselves as well. Why would you want to start with somebody is guilty? Why would you want to assume guilt? That's not good. It's not Christian either. All right. Back to the phone calls. Let's go to the Buckeye State. Pete in Ohio. How are you, sir? Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.

VOICE: Hey, good morning, Doc. The spotlight on people in powerful positions has never been brighter. And we can vote with our dollars and our feet in business or in Hollywood. But I'd like to expand the institution of term limits, as we have for our -- our mayors. Term limits for the governors. Term limits for the president of the United States. Power in the Congress and the Senate is based on, you know, dictates of entrenched politicians. And I would like to see them, you know, 16 to 20 years, I think is reasonable. It would -- it's not partisan. It wouldn't help one party or the other. But it would clean up Congress.

DOC: Pete, I absolutely agree with you. That's one of the solutions in this thing. So let's talk solutions. If you're tired of all of this back and forth witch hunt, backbiting when you know so many people are guilty from various backgrounds, from Republicans, Democrats, conservative, liberal. Whatever. If you're tired of it, then you have to come up with solutions. And, Pete, you're right. That's one of the solutions, term limits. We have to find as much way to take away power from DC as possible. And that's something our liberal friends are missing here.

This was one of the first homesteads in the area in the 1880's and was just begging to be brought back to its original glory — with a touch of modern. When we first purchased the property, it was full of old stuff without any running water, central heat or AC, so needless to say, we had a huge project ahead of us. It took some vision and a whole lot of trust, but the mess we started with seven years ago is now a place we hope the original owners would be proud of.

To restore something like this is really does take a village. It doesn't take much money to make it cozy inside, if like me you are willing to take time and gather things here and there from thrift shops and little antique shops in the middle of nowhere.

But finding the right craftsman is a different story.

Matt Jensen and his assistant Rob did this entire job from sketches I made. Because he built this in his off hours it took just over a year, but so worth the wait. It wasn't easy as it was 18"out of square. He had to build around that as the entire thing we felt would collapse. Matt just reinforced the structure and we love its imperfections.

Here are a few pictures of the process and the transformation from where we started to where we are now:

​How it was

By request a photo tour of the restored cabin. I start doing the interior design in earnest tomorrow after the show, but all of the construction guys are now done. So I mopped the floors, washed the sheets, some friends helped by washing the windows. And now the unofficial / official tour.

The Property

The Hong Kong protesters flocking to the streets in opposition to the Chinese government have a new symbol to display their defiance: the Stars and Stripes. Upset over the looming threat to their freedom, the American flag symbolizes everything they cherish and are fighting to preserve.

But it seems our president isn't returning the love.

Trump recently doubled down on the United States' indifference to the conflict, after initially commenting that whatever happens is between Hong Kong and China alone. But he's wrong — what happens is crucial in spreading the liberal values that America wants to accompany us on the world stage. After all, "America First" doesn't mean merely focusing on our own domestic problems. It means supporting liberal democracy everywhere.

The protests have been raging on the streets since April, when the government of Hong Kong proposed an extradition bill that would have allowed them to send accused criminals to be tried in mainland China. Of course, when dealing with a communist regime, that's a terrifying prospect — and one that threatens the judicial independence of the city. Thankfully, the protesters succeeded in getting Hong Kong's leaders to suspend the bill from consideration. But everyone knew that the bill was a blatant attempt by the Chinese government to encroach on Hong Kong's autonomy. And now Hong Kong's people are demanding full-on democratic reforms to halt any similar moves in the future.

After a generation under the "one country, two systems" policy, the people of Hong Kong are accustomed to much greater political and economic freedom relative to the rest of China. For the protesters, it's about more than a single bill. Resisting Xi Jinping and the Communist Party means the survival of a liberal democracy within distance of China's totalitarian grasp — a goal that should be shared by the United States. Instead, President Trump has retreated to his administration's flawed "America First" mindset.

This is an ideal opportunity for the United States to assert our strength by supporting democratic values abroad. In his inaugural address, Trump said he wanted "friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world" while "understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their interests first." But at what point is respecting sovereignty enabling dictatorships? American interests are shaped by the principles of our founding: political freedom, free markets, and human rights. Conversely, the interests of China's Communist Party are the exact opposite. When these values come into conflict, as they have in Hong Kong, it's our responsibility to take a stand for freedom — even if those who need it aren't within our country's borders.

Of course, that's not a call for military action. Putting pressure on Hong Kong is a matter of rhetoric and positioning — vital tenets of effective diplomacy. When it comes to heavy-handed world powers, it's an approach that can really work. When the Solidarity movement began organizing against communism in Poland, President Reagan openly condemned the Soviet military's imposition of martial law. His administration's support for the pro-democracy movement helped the Polish people gain liberal reforms from the Soviet regime. Similarly, President Trump doesn't need to be overly cautious about retribution from Xi Jinping and the Chinese government. Open, strong support for democracy in Hong Kong not only advances America's governing principles, but also weakens China's brand of authoritarianism.

After creating a commission to study the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote last month that the principles of our Constitution are central "not only to Americans," but to the rest of the world. He was right — putting "America First" means being the first advocate for freedom across the globe. Nothing shows the strength of our country more than when, in crucial moments of their own history, other nations find inspiration in our flag.

Let's join the people of Hong Kong in their defiance of tyranny.

Matt Liles is a writer and Young Voices contributor from Austin, Texas.

Summer is ending and fall is in the air. Before you know it, Christmas will be here, a time when much of the world unites to celebrate the love of family, the generosity of the human spirit, and the birth of the Christ-child in Bethlehem.

For one night only at the Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, on December 7th, join internationally-acclaimed radio host and storyteller Glenn Beck as he walks you through tales of Christmas in the way that only he can. There will be laughs, and there might be a few tears. But at the end of the night, you'll leave with a warm feeling in your heart and a smile on your face.

Reconnect to the true spirit of Christmas with Glenn Beck, in a storytelling tour de force that you won't soon forget.